Robotic Wetbenches

Felcon Ltd. have been manufacturing wet processing stations to the highest industry standard for 20 years. We continue to supply many of the leading companies in the semiconductor, phamaceutical and electronics industries. Our experienced design and construction teams have worked together at our production facility in the United Kingdom for many years to perfect our product range. As the needs of the industry change, our flexibility allows us to keep pace with and maintain the standards of satisfaction experienced by our clients. We pride our selves on fully satisfying our clients needs.

Robokem 6800 Series

Technologically Advanced

Robot Processing

Robotrak 6900 Series

Robust Construction

Flexible control

Built in Safety

Compact Linear Processing

Optional Fitments

Efficient Fume Extraction

Some of the features incorporated into our
wet processing stations are;

• Bath heater systems
• Filtered recirculation systems
• Chemical dosing
• Quartz, plastic and stainless steel baths
• Quick dump rinse systems
• 1,2 and 3 stage weir systems
• Manufactured to all relevant safety standards
• Laminar flow to class 1
• Fully extracted
• Under bench storage or trolleys

Robokem 6800 Series

The Robokem 6800 Series offers a purpose-built, rear-tracked wet processing station intended mainly for new installations where structural requirements, services and laminar flow provisions can be fitted to produce a fully integrated system. It is also generally possible to incorporate this station into an existing facility without detriment to the overall system capability.

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Robotrak 6900 Series

The Robotrak 6900 Series offers an alternative, front mounted robot arm assembly. The system is designed, built and tested as a complete package ready to install and run in an existing processing area. Optionally, the robotic part of the system can in some cases be fitted to existing work stations.

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Built in Safety

Safety is fundamental to the design of the Robotic Wet Processing Station. Electrical equipment is fully protected and all compartments containing control equipment are purged by nitrogen. Process stations are chemically resistant to most normal acids, alkalis and solvents.

Control switches are splash proof to 1P65. Sensors monitor the chemical process system to maintain safety of operation. For example, areas monitored by the robotic controller include; load/unload station occupied, wafer gripped, compressed air at correct pressure and robot arm unobstructed.

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Technologically Advanced

Meeting the specific demands of high technology manufacturers requires constant re-examination of our systems. From fundamental design concepts to the precise choice of materials, nothing is left to chance or subject to compromise.

Technologically advanced, yet brilliantly simple in design, our robotic wet processing stations offer an unrivalled combination of flexibility, performance and reliability.

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Robust Construction

All materials and construction techniques used in the stations are chosen to provide long and trouble-free service. Constructed entirely of high quality, fusion welded, stress-relieved polypropylene. The carcass provides a rigid, durable and easily maintained base for the wide range of fitments available. A stainless steel sub-frame gives extra support for the carcass and robot track to ensure high stability in operation.

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Compact Linear Processing

The linear processing concept brings obvious space saving benefits; the wet processing stations are narrow and compact and follow a well proven pattern of bath layout. Virtually any number of fitments can be accomodated and serviced by the robot.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the linear design is its contribution to the reduction of process contamination. The robot track and drive motors are completely isolated from the process area. The robot moves along a straight path, positioning the wafer cassette in the process baths, from the load to the unload station. It requires no rotation axis, thus minimising contamination from moving parts in the process area.

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Efficient Fume Extraction

A continuous supply of clean air is drawn down and extracted through the perforated work surface and through slots surrounding the process baths. Fume extraction is therefore concentrated right where you need it, at the surface of the process liquids.

As well as clearing fumes efficiently, this curtain of clean air also reduces the need for automatic bath lids and with it removes yet another potential source of particle contamination. However, where the chemical process or Health and Safety Regulations stipulate the need, manual or automatic lids can be provided.

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Robot Processing

Maximum throughput - Minimum contamination.

Felcon's unique wet processing station robot is purpose-designed for the application in every respect. It has an elegantly simple design and high quality construction ensures that it can reliably cope with even the most arduous duty cycles, producing maximum yield day after day. However, there's more to it than that, the whole concept of operation is fundamental to maintaining minimum process contamination

The horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes of the robot are driven by electric stepper motors, much cleaner than pneumatic designs with their need for lubricants and constant supply of compressed air. Then, the chance of particle contamination is reduced still further by enclosing all X/Y moving components within an extracted compartment, segregated from the process area. The slim vertical column of the robot projects through a simple air extracted slot in the compartment. With no requirement for a rotation axis, the PTFE and Teflon gripper is the only moving component above the work surface.

Particle generation has been virtually eliminated, with the moving parts kept away from the product.

The Felcon - designed gripper is pneumatically operated using pure nitrogen. Teflon fingers ensure a good grip on the cassette/carrier. Positive pressure during grip and release actions, lubricant free design and positive nitrogen purge through the Teflon coated arm, all contribute to maintaining a very high standard of operational cleanliness within the Class10 or Class 100 process area.

To avoid contamination during a process cycle, the fingers of the gripper assembly are programmed to rinse after leaving an etch bath and to be dried with pure nitrogen before gripping a cassette/carrier.

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Flexible Control

The standard control system consists of a programmable logic controller (PLC) capable of supporting most applications. Where a higher level of sophistication is required, a control system based on an industrial computer can be fitted.

The PLC contains just one program selected from any number of alternatives stored in memory. Any one of four stored programs can be selected using a single-key operation. Changes to the program such as modifying cycle times and altering running order, can be effected simply from a control panel.

Complete flexibility of operation is provided by the alternative, computer-based, robot controller. Pre-programmed for any given process sequence, the day to day operation requires only a simple control panel on the robotic wet processing station. When you need to change processes, the controller can be quickly re-programmed using a personal computer and a dedicated easy-to-learn FORTH derived command language specially written for robot control applications. The sophisticated control system and programming language facilitates specific control requirements for such items as external pumps. heaters, coolers, agitation and extraction.

The rinser/dryer unit may be controlled and re-programmed directly from the robot controller. This allows its operation to be incorporated directly into program sequences.

Indicators on the control panel show the progress of operation, while alarms give warnings of conditions such as 'load/unload station occupied'  'wafer gripped'  'compressed air at correct pressure'  'robot arm unobstructed' and 'process complete'.

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Optional Fitments

Process baths can be supplied to suit customer requirements. Quick dump/rinse baths, weir washes, heated baths or ultra-sonic baths can be manufactured in quartz, PTFE, PVDF, Polypropylene, PVC, Stainless Steel, or other materials to customer specifications.

The baths are of moulded or fabricated construction and can be fitted with automatic lids operated by electrical or pneumatic controls and interfaced with the robotic process system.

The chemical process stations can be installed with a spin rinser/dryer unit to interface with the automated process system. The rinser/dryer provides for high pressure rinsing with DI water, liquid removal by centifugal spinning and final drying with filtered hot nitrogen. The unit features a fully programmable process control system and is capable of monitoring the resistivity of out-flowing DI rinse water. The rinser/dryer can be supplied to accomodate either a standard or double capacity cassette wafer.

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In order to maintain the very highest of standards, we reserve the right to make any variations in the design,

construction and equipment specification of the products described herein without prior notice.